Bdale Garbee [Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:54:52 +0000 (09:54 -0600)]
Trick-o-Treat on AMW J450ST at Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling 2011
The rocket was flown by sn 209, a v1.0 board running production 0.9 firmware.
Flew sn 341 adjacent to it in the same ebay running 0.9.3 firmware, set up
for redundant apogee with 2 second delay, with e-matches hanging out through
the aft bulkhead. After flight, both e-matches had fired.
Robert reported hearing "max speed 0 m/s" from the voice synth during flight,
and in fact replay of the sn 341 telem file says that.
Used a QuickBurst igniter, ignition was slow enough that Warren as LCO was
in the process of calling "no joy" when the motor came up to pressure.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:45:33 +0000 (09:45 -0600)]
Robert's Nuke Pro Maxx at Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling 2011
First flight of this airframe, on a CTI 84G88 Smoky Sam. Delay set too long
for conditions, flight looked good despite late deployment, but discovered
nose had impaced fin can hard enough to shatter leading edge of one fin, and
some damage to airframe tube just forward of that fin. Will require a fair
amount of work before it flies again.
Had trouble with sn 286, so dropped back to sn 215. Then discovered battery
connector was flakey, so sn 286 is probably actually just fine. Went ahead
and flew with the older v1.0 board this time.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:37:59 +0000 (09:37 -0600)]
Robert's LOC Legacy on a CTI 159G118BS at Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling 2011
Beautiful flight, long walk over the ridge to the east to recover due to
winds at altitude. Had visual until it dropped over the ridge, recovery
aided by RDF'ing from the top of the hill.
Files renamed .. telem had flight 0 in filename, eeprom had wrong date due
to not dumping data until day after flight.
Keith Packard [Tue, 31 May 2011 08:25:20 +0000 (01:25 -0700)]
Horizon on CTI Pro38 6xl J530 Imax at Mayhem 2011. TM + Tm
Testing redundant apogee and main deployment modes. TM doing redundant
apogee charges and Tm doing redundant main charges.
No apogee charges were fired. One main charge was fired. Ballistic
flight destroyed two airframe sections and separated TM from the
sled. GPS antenna separated from TM, ripping beeper off as well.
eeprom logs successfully recovered from both flight computers.
False launch detects on Estes Magician with TeleMini in clear payload bay.
Finally got a good flight (not part of this commit) by taping over the bay
to make it opaque.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 5 Mar 2011 23:13:53 +0000 (16:13 -0700)]
Modified Sky Torpedo on an F24W-7 at Hudson Ranch. Used a twiggy
igniter from QuickBurst due to previous copperhead issues. Chuffed
like crazy before flying. Flight looked good except chute never
fully deployed. Came in fairly hard, broke off two fins and
cracked paint on airframe tube. Carried an Altimeter Two prototype
for Tim.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 5 Mar 2011 23:12:14 +0000 (16:12 -0700)]
Sublime Grape on a D12-7 at Hudson Ranch. Didn't go very vertical,
as a result a -5 would have been better. elastic portion of shock
cord separated, both pieces found without incident. Fin can broke
one fin off due to descent without chute. Carried an Altimeter 2
prototype for Tim, too.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 19 Feb 2011 22:51:36 +0000 (15:51 -0700)]
Vertical Assault on a CTI Pro38 6xl J595BS at Hudson Ranch
1.5 grams BP rear, 1.8 grams BP front
Perfect drogueless dual deploy flight, with no damage!
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 19 Feb 2011 22:41:45 +0000 (15:41 -0700)]
Sharp Stick on a CTI Pro38 3-grain I345WT at Hudson Ranch
Added more kevlar to the aft end, flew with 1.3 grams BP rear and 1.0 front.
Perfect drogueless dual deploy flight, and no damage!
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 30 Jan 2011 07:24:59 +0000 (17:24 +1000)]
Group project 5.5" Polecat Thumper airframe built in the Quay West Suites in
Brisbane, Australia, during LCA 2011 by Bdale, Keith, Mike Beattie, and
Anthony Towns. Flown at QRS club launch on an Aerotech J315R 54mm 2-grain
motor.
We believe this was the first time ever that an airframe flew with redundant
TeleMetrum boards! Test firmware in the sn 56 v1.1 board failed to sync with
the GPS chip for some reason, but both boards apparently fired their charges
exactly when expected. Sadly, we were stuck friction fitting the nose cone,
and observed the main deploy after the secondary altimeter's apogee charge
fired. Fortunately, it wasn't that high and the wind wasn't too strong, so
everything was recovered in good condition!
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 20 Nov 2010 23:52:27 +0000 (16:52 -0700)]
Civil Air Patrol project rocket led by James Russell, flying at Hudson Ranch.
The central Pro54 L1030 Red lit and burned fine, the two sets of 3 Pro38 J
air-starts never lit. Recovery system, controlled by other electronics,
deployed fine, though only one of the two redundant altimeter systems actually
worked.
All in all, a great experience despite the flight not going as planned. No
damage to the airframe, so we'll look forward to the next attempt!
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 20 Nov 2010 23:49:26 +0000 (16:49 -0700)]
Sharp Stick flying on a CTI Pro38 5-grain 650J270 Green3 reload at
Hudson Ranch. Bdale's first flight using ButtonBox ground station
code, sort of a test flight prior to the CAP complex project led by
James Russell later in the day.
Charges were 0.7g BP front and 1.0g BP rear. In hindsight, wonder if I
shouldn't have run them the other way, since the mains shook out at apogee
again. Landed 2.26 miles or so downrange in the side yard of a house on
the east side of the highway.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:13:24 +0000 (09:13 -0700)]
Bob Finch flight.
"One thing unusual about this flight was that there was successful
firing of the apogee and backup motor charges, but no separation.
Main was re-adjusted (to somewhere between 200-250m, I forget exactly
what) and did deploy successfully although again lower than I would
have hoped for."
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 17 Oct 2010 23:40:55 +0000 (17:40 -0600)]
Horizon Rebuild on CTI J595BS at Tripoli Colorado launch site near Hartsel, CO
Beautiful flight, except telem lost during boost and not recovered on XO
serving as ground station. No clue what that was about, was able to extract
eeprom data using RF after flight, so doesn't seem to have been a problem
in the airframe?
Minor ding on the front end of the airframe at the nose cone junction, not
really enough to call it a zipper, but clearly caused by kevlar harness.
Robert's Lil Nuke on a CTI Pro29 159G125 during Chili Blaster 2
at Hudson Ranch. Had a plastic elephant with parachute onboard that
got ejected at apogee, was supposed to be a timed parachute duration
thing. However, timers didn't do the right things, so the flight was
DQ'ed. Great flight, otherwise. We did not capture telemetry due to
Bdale flying No Nukes at the same time. Needed RDF to locate it after
flight. No real damage, but the airframe continues to unravel a bit
more each flight.
Bdale's 10" Goblin, flying on a CTI Pro75 M1300 Imax dual thrust during
Chili Blaster 2 at Hudson Ranch. First flight after rebuild to do dual
deploy from one bay with ARRD and 15' surplus "+ sign" parachute.
Beautiful boost.
Main was out at apogee, apparently due to a harness tangle mechanically
pulling it out of the deployment bag. ARRD fired on schedule around 400
meters, causing the fin can to drop somewhat less than the expected 50
feet due to severe recovery harness tangling. Thanksfully there was little
wind!
Airframe recovered with no damage whatsoever, approximately 0.7 miles from
the launch rail.
G-spot on an old Aerotech H125-20W single use 29mm motor. It appears
the ejection at apogee actually happened much later, perhaps as much
as 10 seconds late!
The fin can separated from the nose and payload bay assemble at
deployment poings sufficent to make something work.
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 22 Aug 2010 04:02:46 +0000 (22:02 -0600)]
Anthony Towns' LDDD clone, successful L2 cert on a CTI Pro38 5-grain 58J357
blue streak. Perfect drogueless dual deploy! 0.8-0.9 grams aft charge and
about 1.0 grams forward. Flew without ground testing charges due to time
pressure before waiver closed for the day. About as close to the waiver as
you'd ever want to be on a cert flight, again demonstrating that OpenRocket
under-estimates apogee ... approximately 6800 ft predicted...
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:59:23 +0000 (21:59 -0600)]
Anthony Towns' LDDD clone, successful L1 cert on a CTI Pro38 2-grain 266H125
classic. Airframe was set up for apogee-only with motor based ejection. The
BP charge was larger than necessary, caused nose cone to snap back against
aft airframe. Minor damage to leading edge of aft airframe, big chunk of
the nose cone skin cracked away. Same problem Bdale saw on Sharp Stick's
nosecone, also from Performance Rocketry, where there was apparently an air
bubble below the gel coat. Determination was that damage was cosmetic and
would not affect cert... confirmed by successful L2 later in the day!
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:57:15 +0000 (21:57 -0600)]
Tim van Milligan's 5.5" L2 airframe, flying on a CTI Pro38 6-grain 774J410 red,
TM indicated a problem with the apogee igniter continuity, noticed during
countdown, turned out to be a loose wire! Perfect dual deploy flight once
that was fixed.
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 27 Jun 2010 02:13:38 +0000 (20:13 -0600)]
Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling with COSROCS at the Buffalo Ranch
Bdale flying Trick-O-Treat on a CTI Pro38 6xl 985J595 blue streak.
Main out at apogee, otherwise a perfect flight. Visually saw the
main charge fire at 250 meters as expected, so this was not an
issue with TeleMetrum doing something wrong.
Was flying with a shorter apogee shock cord than sometimes, and
it's possible one of the nose shear pins might have snapped during
the ride over due to the unusual loading required because third-row
seat was present in the Suburban. Going with a longer apogee shock
cord and zig-folding with tape rap might help prevent shaking the
main out.
Bdale Garbee [Sun, 27 Jun 2010 02:06:28 +0000 (20:06 -0600)]
Tripoli Colorado Spring Fling with COSROCS at the Buffalo Ranch
Robert flying RG-2 on a CTI Pro29 3-grain 159G54 red moon burner.
Goal was to break a mile, rocket was a bit wobbly off the rail and
did not go vertical, so he didn't quite make it. Perfect flight
otherwise, rocket was 26 feet from GPS waypoint.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 5 Jun 2010 07:01:39 +0000 (01:01 -0600)]
Robert's RG-2 on a 159G54RL at Mile High Mayhem
Note that the apparently-metallic silver paint on his airframe
attenuated GPS signals severely, but RDF using the UHF downlink
worked fine. The fin can separated at apogee deploy but was
located between the launch rail and site of the electronics bay
landing due to the flourescent pink paint job.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 5 Jun 2010 07:01:39 +0000 (01:01 -0600)]
Robert's RG-2 on a 159G54RL at Mile High Mayhem
Note that the apparently-metallic silver paint on his airframe
attenuated GPS signals severely, but RDF using the UHF downlink
worked fine. The fin can separated at apogee deploy but was
located between the launch rail and site of the electronics bay
landing due to the flourescent pink paint job.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 5 Jun 2010 07:01:39 +0000 (01:01 -0600)]
Robert's RG-2 on a 159G54RL at Mile High Mayhem
Note that the apparently-metallic silver paint on his airframe
attenuated GPS signals severely, but RDF using the UHF downlink
worked fine. The fin can separated at apogee deploy but was
located between the launch rail and site of the electronics bay
landing due to the flourescent pink paint job.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 6 Mar 2010 23:16:11 +0000 (16:16 -0700)]
G-Spot at Hudson Ranch on an H180W
Two of the shrouds popped at deployment, causing the chute to twirl itself
up. The rocket therefore came down very quickly, landing closer to the rail
than even my L1 cert! See photos...
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 6 Mar 2010 23:14:47 +0000 (16:14 -0700)]
Trick-O-Treat at Hudson Ranch on a J595BS
This is the TM v0.1 board hacked to be like v0.2 with an off-board Venus
GPS board. We couldn't get GPS to lock on the rail, but decided to fly it
anyway. Absolutely perfect dual deploy flight.
Bdale Garbee [Sat, 6 Mar 2010 23:10:50 +0000 (16:10 -0700)]
Horizon Rebuilt at Hudson Ranch on a J530IM with MAWD as backup
TeleMetrum v0.2 board with off-board amplified patch antenna.
It appeared that the MAWD with 1 second delay actually fired nearly at the
same time as the TM at apogee (only one event seen, but both charges blew).
We hypothesize that this generated enough force for the nose cone shear pins
to snap as the main was out shortly after the apogee charges fired. At the
expected altitudes, we saw both main charges fire and smoke come from the
correct end of the airframe through binoculars. Fortunately, winds were
light.
The GPS fix from TM got us to within 15 feet of the rocket.
Bdale Garbee [Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:32:57 +0000 (17:32 -0700)]
G-Spot at Albuquerque Rocket Society launch site in Rio Rancho, NM
Cesaroni 229H255WT-14A, full delay
Beautiful boost, rocket invisible after apogee, nobody saw it come down. Good
data through flight, final GPS fix in Garmin eTrex Vista HCX led me to within
20 feet of the rocket, nearly 1.3 miles down range! Very, very cool.